• Children, left behind by suburbia, need better community design

    Walkable, mixed-use planning is the key to getting young people outside again and enabling their independence.
    “Why don’t children leave the house?” Childhood in America is losing its charm. The lack of effective transit, coupled with the lack of kid-friendly destinations and the feeling of more dangerous neighborhoods, means that today’s youth find it harder than ever to go outside, meet up with friends,...Read more

  • 21st Century infill urbanism that looks historic

    Urban designers and architects are astounded by a charming, small, mid-block development in Charleston that is 2-4 stories tall yet is comparable to the gross density of Manhattan.
    Catfiddle Street in Charleston, South Carolina, is a remarkable development that most people would not believe has been recently built. It got a lot of attention on Twitter.com over the last few days because urbanists gathered in the city for several overlapping events. As architect Erik Bootsma...Read more

  • Johns Hopkins study recommends narrow travel lanes

    A nationwide study of more than 1,000 street sections sides with urbanists and planners in the long-standing battle with traffic engineers over the benefits of narrow travel lanes in urban places.
    Narrow travel lanes, which benefit walkable cities because they provide more room for pedestrians, bicyclists, and landscaping, also do not contribute to automobile crashes, according to a new nationwide study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. According to the research team...Read more

  • Principles to guide infrastructure investment for the future

    When you see news about the infrastructure around us, remember your own personal budget: how would you wisely spend your resources of time and money?
    How have your finances been lately? I imagine that the pandemic and this recent period of unprecedented inflation impacted your bank account in some not so positive ways. The recent state of the economy has also seriously impacted how governments and developers handle their finances when it comes...Read more